HMRC grants five charities extension to file gift aid

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has granted five charities an extension to file their gift aid after exceptional extenuating circumstances.

Peter Mills, Charities Online programme manager who recently spoke at the Charity VAT and Tax Conference said: “14 charities approached him ahead of the 30 September deadline to start using the new system for claiming gift aid. Nine have been sorted without a problem and five have been given an extension because of their exceptional circumstances, but there will be no general extension.”

Since HMRC stopped accepting the old forms, Mr Mills stated that the number of old claim forms it has had to send back has significantly decreased. To date, the number of charities who have registered to use the system is over 40,000 and Mr Mills explained that more charities will begin to register for the system but not many will need to at the moment as 60% of organisations file once a year.

Next April will be the first anniversary of Charities Online. By then HMRC predicts that 55,000 charities will have registered and that by the end of September 70,000 will be signed up.